Woolwich attack: Police let women risk their lives during wait for armed back up

The police response to the Woolwich terrorist attack has come in for further
criticism after it emerged that uniformed officers allowed members of the
public to intervene while they waited for armed back up.

One of the man involved in the attack is confronted by Ingrid Loyau-Kennett while waiting for the policePhoto: @dannymckiernan

By Martin Evans, and Christopher Hope

9:57PM BST 24 May 2013

Unarmed officers were on the scene of the murder within nine minutes of the first onlookers dialling 999.

But, apparently fearing that the terrorists could be luring them into a trap, they hung back and waited five minutes for armed units to arrive.

During this period, three women — Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, Amanda Donnelly, 44, and her daughter Gemini, 20 — approached the armed attackers to remonstrate with them or try to offer some comfort to the victim.

Questions were being asked as to why the police officers allowed members of the public to put their lives at risk.

Sources within the Met said officers were told to stay back amid concerns that the attack was part of a deliberate ploy to kill police officers by detonating booby traps.

However, it remained unclear whether the uniformed officers who were first on the scene were acting on orders from their commanders, or whether they were following their training.

It is understood that while it took almost a quarter of an hour for armed officers to arrive, senior officers were monitoring events via a CCTV camera mounted on a traffic island close by.

Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, said: “I am most surprised to learn that police officers did not intervene while those brave and courageous women were speaking to the assailants.” He said he would be asking for a “full explanation why this was the case”.

Mr Vaz, who is in charge of monitoring the work of the police on behalf of Parliament, said it was similar to the London riots in 2011 when the police were heavily criticised for standing back while looters went into shops.

He raised the prospect of rules being rewritten to allow unarmed police officers to intervene in life and death situations, rather than require them to stand back.

He added: “If there are guidelines preventing them from intervening then they need to be put to one side during life and death situations.”

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said such matters were likely to form part of the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation which was automatically triggered after police discharged weapons at the scene.